Impact of sustained professional development in STEM on outcome measures in a diverse urban district

Sustained professional development can support STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) reform. The authors describe a 3-year study of sustained professional development for 3 diverse urban schools across the salient factors of fidelity of implementation of project-based learning, development of professional learning communities, and student achievement. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected. The students who experienced the greatest fidelity of implementation exhibited the greatest gains (d = 1.41–2.03) on standardized test scores, while those with the lowest fidelity of implementation exhibited negative gains (d = –0.16 to –0.08). Qualitative data indicated teachers perceived there were multiple benefits from the implementation of project-based learning.     

Genetic etiology of spelling deficits in the Colorado and London twin studies of reading disability

The basic multiple regression model for the analysis of selected twin data (DeFries and Fulker 1985, 1988) was fitted to spelling data from 100 pairs of MZ twins and 71 pairs of same-sex DZ twins tested in the Colorado Reading Project (DeFries, Olson, Pennington and Smith 1991), and to data from 12 pairs of MZ twins and 15 pairs of same-sex DZ twins tested in the London twin study of reading disability (Stevenson, Graham, Fredman and McLoughlin 1984, 1987). Estimates of h _g ² obtained from analyses of these data suggest that about 60% of the deficit of probands is due to heritable influences in both samples. When a regression model was fitted separately to data from males and females in the combined Colorado and London samples, resulting estimates of h _g ² were 0.66±0.18 and 0.56±0.19, respectively, a nonsignificant difference. Collaborative analyses of data from additional twin studies of reading disability would facilitate more rigorous tests of hypotheses of differential genetic etiology as a function of group membership.     

‘To educate children from birth’: a genealogical analysis of some practices of subjectivation in Spanish and French scientific childcare (1898–1939)

The aim of this paper is to analyse certain techniques of subjectivation in modern child-rearing and the way in which medical discourse leads to the construction of children through those techniques. As a case study, several manuals on childcare used during the first third of the twentieth century in Spain and France have been selected. A historical-genealogical perspective is adopted, according to which childhood is not a natural or ahistorical category, but depends on cultural practices. In Western countries, these practices have been strongly influenced by expert discourses. The techniques proposed in the manuals are identified and the theoretical justification for them analysed according to the socio-cultural and historical context. It is shown in what sense the practices recommended by doctors for mothers constituted a kind of early informal education contributing to the creation of future well-educated citizens.     

Mathematics classrooms in Japan, Taiwan, and the United States

Observations were conducted in Chinese, Japanese, and American classrooms during mathematics classes. Activities in 20 representative classrooms were observed in each of 2 grades (1 and 5) and in each country. Some observations focused on individual children and others on the teachers. Large cross-cultural differences were found in many variables related to classroom structure and management. These differences paralleled differences in achievement in mathematics among the 3 countries. A number of these variables also were significantly related to average level of mathematics achievement within the American classrooms.     

The course as token: A construction of/by networks

In actor-network theory (ANT) the movement from the instability of science-in-the-making to the relative stability of ready-made-science is followed by tracing the path of a token or focal actor (either human or non-human) as it both constructs a network and is simultaneously transformed by the developing network. Within science education, a new course can be seen to be a token. It undergoes various transformations as it simultaneously changes those who encounter it (teachers, students, and interested actors beyond the school) and is changed by those same actors. This paper describes the way a new applied physics course introduced in British Columbia as part of a program in applied academics can be seen to construct different networks in different contexts and, in the process, to take on significantly different characteristics. Data are collected from interviews and observations in two different settings characterized in part by differences in the types of partnerships developed with industry, labour, and post-secondary groups. The success of the applied physics course in challenging traditional forms of school physics is seen to rely on the size and strength of the network in which it is imbedded.     

David Carr on Religious Knowledge and Spiritual Education

This paper is a reply to David Carr's two recent articles on religious education in this Journal . It argues that the examples Carr cites as distinctively religious are not, and that the present emphasis in schools on education about (rather than in) religion is justified.     

Target Setting in Special Schools

Jim Muncey, Chief Adviser, City of Coventry Education Service, and John McGinty, Headteacher, Wainbody Wood School, examine a model which ensures that target setting in special schools reflects both national demands and the particular nature of special provision.